Poll: If gas hits $3.50, drivers will hit brakes

NEW YORK -- Some 40 percent of Americans would curb their driving habits if retail gasoline prices shot up to $3.50 a gallon, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released yesterday .

Surging energy costs have already forced many Americans to consider cutting back on travel, retail, and entertainment spending to ease sticker shock at the pump, according to the poll of 524 people across the country.

Gasoline prices in the United States, the world's largest energy consumer, hit a record average in late May of $3.23 a gallon but have since slipped back to just above $3 a gallon, according to auto and travel association AAA.

"It's so hard to read what consumer behavior is going to be at higher price points -- be that $3.50 per gallon or $4 per gallon -- because we're all in uncharted territory," said Geoff Sundstrom, a spokesman for AAA.

Price thresholds for cutting time on the road varied, with about 19 percent of participants responding they would cut back at $4 per gallon. Another 9 percent said it would take $4.50, while 7 percent said prices would have to reach $5 a gallon before they would scale back. Some 19 percent indicated that they could not cut their road travel no matter how high prices climb.

Prices hit a record this year due to a spate of refinery problems that cut fuel production in the spring and as geopolitical tensions raised the cost of crude.